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By Chris Oddo | Friday May 13, 2016

Roger Federer’s trip to Rome was short, but maybe that’s not such a bad thing for the 17-time major champion as he now turns his thoughts to Roland Garros, less than ten days away.

Watch: Roger Federer Meets Snoopy in Rome

Federer has been hit with a triple-whammy of knee surgery, back issues and illness this season, and his play was compromised in Rome as he lost in the round of 16 on Thursday.

But the Swiss is still upbeat about his chances of playing effectively at Roland Garros after falling to Dominic Thiem in straight sets he resisted the notion that he might be better off skipping the rest of the clay season in order to prepare physically for the grass.

“I have a lot of hours on the clay already this year,” Federer said. “Maybe not on match courts but on practice courts. I actually thought I could really do a good result in Paris. Now the last couple of weeks it's been more difficult. I see my chances as, you know, as not great to have the most unbelievable run, but if maybe in three, four days I can practice 100 percent for next week, then I believe that something is possible again.”

He added: “But as of now, clearly the way I'm playing right now is never going to be enough for any good run in Paris, and then I also wouldn't play this way.”

The next few days are crucial for Federer to determine whether or not he can go all-out in Paris or whether he should pull back and focus on simply getting healthy enough to not suffer any further setbacks. It’s not an ideal situation for the 34-year-old who was in such impressive form until he suffered a freak knee injury immediately after the Australian Open.

Since then Federer has been mired in a body slump. His knee healed well, but illnesses and back issues have prevented him from gaining any momentum this season. He has played just five matches since the Australian Open, winning three.

The situation hasn’t killed Federer’s confidence, though. “My game is there,” he said, hopefully. “I mean, I'm still almost beating Thiem and beating Zverev with whatever I have. I'm surprising myself.”

Bottom line? Time is running out on the French Open. Federer needs to tread carefully in order to avoid another prolonged outage stopping him in his tracks during grass season. If the Swiss maestro is to surge to life again in 2016, it will likely be on the grass or the hard courts, and if he is to do that at his age, he’ll need perfect health.

“This was an information tournament for me,” Federer summarized. “Never a result tournament. I knew I wasn't good enough for any result here, so that's why I hope you don't read into it so much—and I don't. For me, I need to see this completely in isolation, and I cannot carry any luggage from here other than the positive information out of Rome. It just needs to stay here, the results, what I couldn't do and how limited I was. I was far off. I need to see it completely in isolation.

“If I see it that way, actually things are pretty good. You know, if you look at the results and how I played, yeah, things are not great, but those things can change very quickly, as we know. If I can play 100% again and move again correctly, my mind's in a good place.”

 

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